Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens and an imaging apparatus, and more particularly to a zoom lens that is suitable for use with digital cameras, video cameras, motion-picture cameras, broadcasting cameras, monitoring cameras, etc., and an imaging apparatus provided with the zoom lens.
Description of the Related Art
As a zoom lens mounted on a camera such as a television camera and a broadcasting camera, a four-group zoom lens disclosed in each of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-116993, and Japanese Patent Nos. 4478247 and 5241166 (hereinafter, Patent Documents 1, 2 and 3, respectively), for example, is known. Each of Patent Documents 1 to 3 teaches a lens system consisting of, in order from the object side, a positive first lens group that is fixed during magnification change, a second lens group that is moved during magnification change, a third lens group having a function to correct for change of the image plane during magnification change, and a positive fourth lens group that is fixed during magnification change.